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VetAdvisor Enlists SugarCRM to Help Ease the Transition from Military Service to Civilian Life

SugarCRM, now celebrating its tenth year as a provider of affordable CRMS solutions, is focused on helping its clients find innovative ways to use its software platform to better serve their entire customer base. While SugarCRM has been instrumental in enhancing the success of all types of organizations, perhaps its proudest accomplishment is the strong support it provides to America’s military veterans through its service to VetAdvisor, a national expert in veteran-centric holistic care.

VetAdvisor, which provides proactive coaching services in a variety of areas, has leveraged its deployment of SugarCRM’s advanced platform to rapidly expand its effectiveness in reaching and better serving military veterans. The service provider employs SugarCRM to automate workflow processes and boost its coaching staff’s ability to provide personalized service to a greater number of clients. Benefits of the automated system include increased staff effectiveness, better adherence to both compliance and privacy guidelines, improved service tracking and enhanced ability to spot developing trends.

“We used to think of the words ‘sales’ and ‘marketing’ as negative terminologies in a service-oriented environment such as ours, but we were wrong.” said Paul Handly, VetAdvisor’s Chief Technology Officer. “One of our key missions is to both monitor and influence behaviors. SugarCRM provides the foundation on which our Veteran Relationship Management system is based and gives us the campaign tools necessary to help effect positive change. It enables case management to coach veterans in managing their finances, building their careers and improving their health and wellness.”

In some instances, the services provided by VetAdvisor and optimized by SugarCRM can make a genuine life and death difference. “One of the areas that we are now able to track more closely is early identification of suicidal ideation,’ said Handly. “Engagement with someone who cares significantly reduces the possibility of suicide, which has been increasing at an alarming rate among veterans.”

VetAdvisor is active on a number of fronts to improve veterans’ health behaviors. The organization recently created a fitness initiative in which vets were able to receive the Fitbit, a wireless device which monitors physical activities, either directly from the organization or through employers. VetAdvisor also monitored sleeping patterns to determine if users were getting the recommended 8 hours per night. “The SugarCRM platform helped provide us with the data we needed to coach program participants,” said Handly. ”If they were complying with the program, they received ‘attaboy’ SMS messages encouraging them to keep it up. But if they were not keeping up, we were able to identify these behavioral patterns and make quick interventions and necessary course corrections.”

“Prep time between calls has gone down dramatically,” noted Handly. “The technology has the capacity to automatically generate the positive or negative messages, which was previously a time-consuming task for coaches. Through our partnership with SugarCRM, coaches are now saving countless hours per year, allowing them to focus on providing supportive guidance to vets.”

“SugarCRM is honored to work with VetAdvisor to help make the transition to civilian life as seamless and comfortable as possible for our country’s veterans,” said Jennifer Stagnaro, chief marketing officer at SugarCRM. “With Sugar, VetAdvisor’s coaches and staff can offer a highly personalized understanding and supportive experience from the very first interaction.”